Advanced Energy Perspectives

In September, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam made a splash when he issued Executive Order 43, charting a path toward 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050 for the Commonwealth. It is no secret that, in order to fulfill a mandate like this, the Commonwealth’s energy sector needs to change in ways big and small. The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) provides a path for Virginia to achieve that change, while saving money, creating jobs, and boosting the economy along the way. 

A decision handed down by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on a seemingly obscure issue in one regional power market threatens to have far ranging impact on the cost of electricity, the future of state policy, and the ability for advanced energy to compete – and win, as it has been doing – in the marketplace. FERC’s policy change is purportedly intended to address the “price suppression” in competitive wholesale power markets allegedly caused by resources that are supported by state policies like renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and zero emission credit (ZEC) policies. But what FERC’s decision will actually do is limit the ability of advanced energy resources to participate in the nation’s largest electricity market, force customers from New Jersey to Ohio to pay twice for the generating capacity they need,  steer funds to existing coal and natural gas power plants that are otherwise redundant, and undermine state policies that are explicitly intended to promote advanced energy deployment. How it will do so is complicated, but potentially devastating to the advanced energy economy that has been steadily growing in the United States.

Florida is, in many ways, a state powered by sunshine. From the endless summer that attracts droves of tourists and drives the associated $67 billion tourism industry to the sun-loving crops that allow Florida to lead the Southeast in agriculture, Floridians have the ready availability of sunlight to thank for the state’s most prominent industries. Now, there is another way that the Sunshine State could capitalize on its solar resource – to feed its commercial and industrial powerhouses, producing jobs and investment along with energy that’s low-cost and clean. 

Top executives in the Texas advanced energy sector met last week in Austin for an Executive Forum put on by the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA). The topic: The Next Frontier in Texas Electric Competition: Integrating Storage and Distributed Energy Resources. The exclusive gathering drew over 25 key figures in business and regulation, including Public Utility Commission of Texas Commissioner Arthur D’Andrea, ERCOT CEO Bill Magness, and former PUCT and FERC Chairman Pat Wood. Industry leaders participating included executives from Greenlots, EVgo, CPower, Enel X, Landis & Gyr, Recurve, Savion, Siemens, Stem, Demand Side Analytics, ENGIE North America, Hunt BEE Network, and Rocky Mountain Institute. The daylong session was co-hosted and sponsored by Eversheds-Sutherland and Husch Blackwell and moderated by TAEBA’s Suzanne Bertin and AEE’s Caitlin Marquis.

While Governor Sisolak and the State Legislature were hard at work passing policy after policy to make Nevada one of the best places in the country to invest in advanced energy, the latest employment figures showed what a strong industry base Nevada has to build on: 33,900 advanced energy jobs in 2018, with employers predicting further growth of 7% for the year now coming to a close. What’s more, advanced energy jobs increased a whopping 31% in Nevada from 2017 to 2018, 10 times the rate of overall job growth in the state and far faster than any other state where AEE has reported employment. That should win the Silver State a Gold Medal!